Uttam leads ‘Black Flag’ protest against TS-Maha accord on irrigation

August 23, 2016, 8:53 PM IST

The Congress party on Tuesday organised ‘Black Flag’ demonstration across Telangana State in protest against the signing of MoU between Maharashtra and Telangana State on inter-state irrigation projects across the Godavari river.

The Congress leaders held protests before all District Collectorates and alleged that the agreement was against the interest of Telangana State. They also accused the TRS Government of misleading the people by falsely claiming the agreement to be a great achievement. “By giving over-exaggerated publicity, TRS Government is portraying as if has done a favour to farmers in the State by signing the agreement with Maharashtra,” TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy told reporters while leading the protest at Hyderabad Collectorate.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the then united Andhra Pradesh Government went into agreement with Maharashtra for construction of barrages over river Godavari and the successive government was formed by TRS in the newly formed state, that required it to formalize the agreements again as per the procedure. “KCR’s claim to materialize irrigation or Ayacut for one crore acres in the State is a farce and misleading,” he lamented.

In a letter submitted to Hyderabad district collector Rahul Bojja, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that during the years from 1975 to 2012, successive Congress governments have done several agreements with the Maharashtra over the usage of Godavari waters and Pranahitha Chevella was one such agreement. He stated that Congress Government had not only prepared DPRs for the project but also started the project works with the cost of Rs 38,500 crore . At the juncture of Pranahitha and Godavari rivers in Adilabad district, at Thammidihatti a barrage of 152 meters height and with a capacity of 160 TMC was proposed. This could have provided irrigation water to 16.4 lakh acre land in nearly 7 districts in the state besides providing drinking water to the neighboring areas and 30 TMC drinking water to Hyderabad in addition, he said.

The TPCC president alleged that TRS Government was trying to put aside this project which was started in the name of Dr. B R Ambedkar. He alleged that TRS government agreed to decrease the barrage height at Tammidihatti to 148 meters and wanted to construct barrage at Medigadda namely Kaleshwaram Ettipottala by redesigning the entire earlier project designs. He said that the height of Tammidihatti was decided to be 152 meters keeping in view the submergence in the area for over 100 years and was designed by technical experts.

“KCR is stating that redesigning has been done because 1,800 acre land would submerge in Maharashtra if height of Tammidihatti is 152 meters but he do not have any answer for the 3,000 acre land near Medigadda due to Kaleshwaram”, said Uttam. On the other hand the Pranahitha Chevella project was financially, technically viable and water would have flowed on gravity and it would have cost not much to the state exchequer, he informed.

The TPCC chief alleged that the Kaleshwaram project would lead to submerge nearly one lakh acre fertile land that is costing the government of Rs 83,000 crore instead of Rs 38,000 crore in the past design. He appealed the state government not to indulge in deceiving the people in the name of redesigning.

Earlier, Congress leaders including TPCC Working President Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, ex-MPs V. Hanmantha Rao and M. Anjan Kumar Yadav, ex-ministers Danam Nagender and Ponnala Lakshmaiah, GHCC Minorities Dept chairman Shaik Abdullah Sohail, Telangana Youth Congress president Anil Kumar Yadav, TPCC Spokesperson Syed Nizamuddin and other leaders marched from Gandhi Bhavan to the District Collectorate in a rally. They raised slogans against the TRS Government for its anti-people and anti-farmers’ policies. Later, the TPCC president submitted a memorandum to the District Collector. (INN)